INTERVIEW: Chef Wayne Elias caters to the stars, including Oscar nominee Elton John
Photo: From left, chef Wayne Elias, Elton John, David Furnish and Chris Diamond enjoy the Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards viewing party. Photo courtesy of Crumble Catering / Provided by press rep with permission.
While the world watches the Academy Awards telecast Sunday, Feb. 9, chef Wayne Elias will be busy working the late shift. For the 16th year in a row, he has been tasked with catering the expansive and decadent Elton John AIDS Foundation Academy Awards viewing party. There will be 1,000 people in attendance — including John himself, an Oscar nominee this year — and five courses with scrumptious ingredients will keep them all happy (and Elias quite busy).
“Up until let’s say Wednesday, Thursday, it’s all about getting things in order, working on the logistics, working on all the timing, getting the staffing set,” Elias said in a recent phone interview. “We don’t start any food prep until Thursday, and it’s getting all the pieces together. Obviously we’re serving 1,000 people five-course dinners, so that’s one element. [Another element is] working on dressing rooms for the rest of the people that are coming that need green room riders. We have employee food. We have after-party food. We have pre-hors d’oeuvres before the sit-down dinner, so there’s a lot of moving parts. So right now for the next two, three days I’m working on getting everything tied together on my logistics that will help keep me organized and make everything go smoothly.”
Sixteen years ago, Elias was tapped for this job, and his professional life changed over night. The previous chef decided to retire after eight years of catering this big Oscar party, so Elias threw his name into the ring.
“I was a very small caterer, owning a very small restaurant at the time, and just by chance, the people that were hired to run the event had recommended that they give me an opportunity because I came from a large catering background,” he said. “I worked at UCLA and ran the faculty club, which is where I learned how to do large events and big-volume parties on a really nice, high-end level. They liked my menu, and they liked the budget I gave them. I was very conscious of helping them make money for the organization and the cause without overcharging what these type of dinners would really cost somebody, so they decided to take the risk and go out of the box and give it to the small guy. From that first year, we did a good job, and it was successful. Here I am 16 years later.”
The actual mechanics of feeding 1,000 people — many of them celebrities — is a Herculean task for Crumble Catering, Elias’s company, which he co-owns with business partner Chris Diamond. There is much time spent on preparation and pre-preparation, and Elias’ kitchen is jam-packed busy in the days prior. The actual cooking and finishing commences at the venue, where everything needs to be served within three hours, while the attendees are watching the awards on the big screen.
It seems like an insurmountable obstacle to get everything done on time, but Elias must know what he’s doing because he caters Steve Tyler’s Grammy Awards viewing party as well.
“We take the recipes, and we have to figure them out,” he said. “So if the volume is for four portions or eight portions, we need to extend that recipe and make it for 1,000 portions, so we need to make sure and test it multiple times. Sometimes you just can’t double everything, if that makes any sense. You have to make certain adjustments depending on what the item in the recipe is, so we work on all of that. So the amount of work and logistics involved in planning and staff needed to prep everything is quite a lot.”
On the night of the event, Crumble Catering utilizes 150 staff members to make sure everything runs smoothly. What will they be serving? Well, this year’s menu is delectable sounding and has been planned for quite some time.
The starters are zucchini fritters with tahini yogurt and espellette oil. Next up is a parsnip and Granny Smith apple soup, a vegan option. Elias tops off the soup with kale chips and lemon zest oil. A roasted branzino with cauliflower puree and watercress emulsion is one choice for the entree, while the other is a short rib with carmelized yams, celery root mash, beech mushrooms and dijon shallot sauce. An arugula salad served with manchego cheese and citrus vinaigrette is a nice light option, while a pear raspberry tart with pear mousse, raspberry cream and matcha ice cream finishes off the evening.
“We have to serve during the presentation, so we have three hours for 5,000 plates,” Elias said. “So it’s quite a logistically thought-out process.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Chef Wayne Elias runs Crumble Catering with Chris Diamond, and they also own and operate Rockwell: Table & Stage in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. Click here for more information.
